Guardino rallies tech executives

SAN JOSE, Calif. — When he comes to Washington, Carl Guardino can be spotted at midnight or pre-dawn leading a pack of Silicon Valley chief executives for a run around the monuments.

As the head of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a tech industry organization with nearly 400 members, Guardino isn’t just rallying the tech executives to exercise but to engage with Washington.

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While he finds that there are doors open for discussion, “there are few elected leaders who don’t understand the importance of the innovation economy,” he said in an interview.

The organization primarily focuses on local and regional issues. Guardino, 51, can count some recent federal successes — the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is setting up a satellite office in Silicon Valley, and the federal government is fully funding a commuter train extension that will make it easier for San Francisco Bay Area workers to travel.

Now Guardino has shifted his focus to the passage of comprehensive immigration reforms. The tech industry has long wanted more work visas and green cards so that it can hire talented foreigners as needed, and officials see a comprehensive package as the best shot. He was in Washington this week with more than 50 executives to press the issue — and represent the entities that make the San Francisco Bay Area tick economically, from tiny startups to big tech companies, like Apple and Cisco, to venture firms to local universities.

Guardino and the 35-year-old organization founded by David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, have taken the rare step of asking members to elicit the help of employees to support the cause.

“We are in a unique position to make a substantial contribution,” he said. “We’ve been trying to do this slightly over 11 years. But we believe this is the year. If this is not the year, we won’t have the opportunity again for a while.”

Based in San Jose, SVLG doesn’t have a Washington presence or lobbyist. It does not raise money for elected officials or endorse candidates. Guardino, on his own time, holds political fundraisers and is part of efforts for both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. According to Open Secrets, among those he has contributed to are Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), as well as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

Eshoo said that Guardino was “post-partisan before anyone knew what that meant. He’s about relationships first so that the trust and bond is there.”

Lofgren added, on his work involving immigration reform: “He is on the case. We talk all the time.

He’s very successful and very willing to help.”

Greg Becker, chief executive of Silicon Valley Bank, said that Guardino is skilled at “pulling all the issues that tech cares about under one roof.”

Guardino says the organization picks its federal issues carefully.

“It has always been my goal to be effective and not be the 35th acronym tech organization in D.C.,” he said. “We think it can be oversaturation.”